Hockey Stick Tether

ABSTRACT

A strap and method for use with a hockey stick, wherein the strap has an elongated main body, a first end forming a loop constructed and arranged for receiving a wrist therethrough, a hook and loop fastener system incorporated with the main body and a second end constructed and arranged for attachment to a first end of a hockey stick, wherein said strap releases the attachment arrangement upon application of a predetermined amount of force.

INDEX TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This United States Utility patent application claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Patent Application 61/303,755 filed on Feb. 12, 2010, thedisclosure which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a tether for a hockey stick that attachesthe hockey stick to the wrist of a user and subsequently releases thetether arrangement upon application of a predetermined amount of force.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the strap attached to a hockey stick.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the strap attached to a firstend of hockey stick.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged perspective view of the strap attached to a firstend of the hockey stick and the wrist of a user.

FIG. 4 is a side view of the strap and the hook and loop fastenersincorporated thereon.

FIG. 5 is side view of one embodiment with a connector incorporated withthe strap.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The hockey stick 10 has an elongated shaft 12 which comprises themajority of it's length. Shaft 12 has a first end 14 and a second end16. First end 14 is proximal to the user and second end 16 has a blade18 emanating therefrom. Proximal the first end 14 a strap 20 is providedwhich is used to tether hockey stick 10 to the wrist 26 of a user. Strap20 has a proximal end 40 and a distal end 45. The distal end 45 of strap20 would interengage with the wrist 26 of a user. The proximal end 40 ofthe strap 20 would interengage proximal the first end 14 of the hockeystick 10. Therefore, the strap tether 22 is in an area along shaft 12proximate to first end 14 where strap 20 is connected at its proximalend 40 to the hockey stick 10. Strap 20 is secured to hockey stick 10with a securing mechanism. In a first embodiment, as seen in FIG. 2,strap 20 is secured to hockey stick 10 with a bolt 28 that is boredthrough strap 20 and into hockey stick 10.

By using bolt 28 bored into the hockey stick 10 itself, a very strongconnection is made of the strap 20 at the strap tether 22. This strongconnection would make failure of the strap 20 proximate the strap tether22 unlikely.

At the distal end 45 strap 20 forms a loop 50 by wrapping about itselfallowing the hook and loop fasteners to interengage in a releasablysecurable fashion. As shown in FIG. 4, strap 20 has a first portion withloop fasteners 32 and a second portion with hook fasteners 30 thatco-act to form a releasable bond. By the very nature of hook and loopfasteners in this configuration the loop 50 is variable, depending onwhere the strap 20 is placed together. This permits the strap 20 to makea loop 50 which may be smaller to accommodate a child or a smaller hand(not shown), or alternatively, to make a loop 50 which is larger, toaccommodate a adult or a larger hand (not shown).

In one embodiment, strap 20 is secured to hockey stick 10 on a first end14 with a screw 28 passing through strap 20 and into hockey stick 10.Strap 10 is attached to a user wrist 26 by wrapping wrist loop 50 aroundwrist 26. It is understood that generally a larger hand will have alarger wrist and a smaller hand will have a smaller wrist. It is alsowell known for most cases that a child wrist and hand will be smallerthan an adult wrist and hand. Needless to say, there are most likelyexamples of wrist and hand sizes going against these generalizations,but the important fact is that loop 50 is adjustable to fit any wristand further that the hook and loop fasteners which help form loop 50 onstrap 20 will come undone when a force of sufficient magnitude isapplied to them. The failure of loop 50 when such force is applieddisengages the strap 20 from the wrist of the user and as a result thehockey stick 10 is no longer under the control of the user. Thesituation where such a force is applied to disengage the stick 10 fromthe wrist is one where the stick 10 stuck between a defending player andthe board. If the hockey stick 10 was not released the user would mostlikely suffer an injury. Another scenario where having the hockey stick10 released would avoid injury would be when a hockey player takes a hitsuch that his hockey stick 10 is caught by any number of circumstances.

For the most part, hook fastener 30 and loop fastener 32 are constructedand arranged to secure wrist strap 26 such that a person playing hockeyand holding hockey stick 10 does not lose hockey stick 10 while playing.However, it can easily be seen that the present invention may play asignificant role should the hockey stick 10 become positioned such thata substantial amount of force is imparted away from a user, strap 20will unfasten along hook fastener 30 and loop fastener 32 and allowhockey stick 10 to detach from a user's wrist 26 and have the stick 10move away from a user. The term significant amount of force, asunderstood herein refers to force in which the hockey stick is movedaway from the user such that continued attachment may cause injury. Theseparation under force provides a tether device that is safer than asolid cord type tether because a solid cord type tether does not releaseand could cause arm injuries.

In another embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, strap 20 has, incorporatedtherein, a connecting device 34 that joins first strap portion 20 a andsecond strap portion 20 b. A loop 50A is formed to receive the wristtherein. When a predetermined amount of pressure is exerted onconnecting device 34, connecting device releases and strap 20 isseparated into disconnected first strap portion 20 a and second strapportion 20 b. In the embodiment of FIG. 5, it is also contemplated thatthe tether release will occur when significant force is exerted on strap20 in order to prevent injury to the user.

In a preferred embodiment, strap 20 has a length of 27.25 inches. Strap20 is folded to engage hook fasteners 30 with loop fasteners 32 formingwrist loop 50. In the folded configuration, strap 20 extendsapproximately 18 inches outward from stick 10. The width of strap 20 is1 inch. Varying the physical properties of the tether such as width andthickness, as well as the specific type of hook and loop fasteners(Number of hooks and loops per square inch, the material the hooks andloops are made from etcetera) will vary the amount of force that will berequired to cause the loop 50 to fail when sufficient force is applied.The instant invention considers that any of a variety of configurationsand materials may be employed to give satisfactory results.

While the invention has been described in its preferred form orembodiment with some degree of particularity, it is understood that thisdescription has been given only by way of example and that numerouschanges in the details of construction, fabrication, and use, includingthe combination and arrangement of parts, may be made without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention.

1. A strap for use with a hockey stick comprising: a. an elongated mainbody; b. a first end forming a loop constructed and arranged forreceiving a wrist therethrough; c. a hook and loop fastener systemincorporated with said main body; and d. a second end constructed andarranged for attachment to a first end of a hockey stick whereby whensaid strap comes under a level of physical force which may cause injuryto a hockey player, said loop comes undone freeing the wrist from saidstrap and preventing the possible injury.
 2. A strap for use with ahockey stick as claimed in claim 1 wherein said second end of said strapis secured to said first end of said hockey stick with a connectionmeans, wherein said connection means would not fail when exposed to thelevel of physical force which would disrupt said loop.
 3. A strap foruse with a hockey stick as claimed in claim 2 wherein said loop may havea size which is chosen by the hockey player, whereby a child may choosesaid loop to be smaller to accommodate the child's wrist.
 4. A strap foruse with a hockey stick as claimed in claim 3 wherein said loop may havea size which is chosen by the hockey player, whereby an adult may choosesaid loop to be larger to accommodate the adult's wrist.
 5. A strap foruse with a hockey stick as claimed in claim 4 wherein the level ofphysical force which would disrupt said loop and free the hockey playerswrist from said strap is chosen to be larger for an adult.
 6. A strapfor use with a hockey stick as claimed in claim 5 wherein the level ofphysical force which would disrupt said loop and free the hockey playerswrist from said strap is chosen to be smaller for a child.
 7. A tetherfor a hockey stick comprising; a strap with a proximal side and a distalside, said proximal side including connection means, said connectionmeans substantially connecting said proximal side to a top portion of ahockey stick, said distal side of said strap including a loop, said loopformed from the distal side of said strap and further being of adiameter to accommodate a hockey players wrist therethrough, wherebywhen said hockey player's wrist is in said loop said hockey player isconfined to said hockey stick.
 8. A tether for a hockey stick as claimedin claim 7 whereby said loop is not permanently attached to the hockeyplayers wrist.
 9. A tether for a hockey stick as claimed in claim 8whereby when said hockey stick is exposed to a force which may causeinjury to the hockey player, said loop becomes unfastened and permitsthe hockey player to be separated from said hockey stick, wherebypossible injury is avoided.
 10. A method for tethering a hockey stick tothe wrist of a user comprising the steps of: providing a hockey stick;providing a tether with a release mechanism; attaching one end of saidtether to the wrist of a user; and attaching a second end of said tetherto a first end of a hockey stick forming a tether arrangement.
 11. Themethod of claim 10 wherein said release mechanism is constructed andarranged to release said tether arrangement when said tether issubjected to a predetermined amount of force.